Blog Exercises: Current Events January

Every month in this series of Blog Exercises I will ask you to check the news and report on something in the news that relates to you and/or your site’s purpose. It may directly relate or indirectly.

Fascinated with the alignment of the planets, I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the ease of watching the astrological alignment on my mobile devices with my readers on Lorelle on WordPress. However, the site is dedicated to blogging and WordPress, with some social media and related web publishing topics. How could I make astronomy tie in with that?

By showcasing bloggers blogging about astronomy! In “Exploring the Alignment of the Planets in the Night Sky,” I featured popular astronomy bloggers, pros and amateurs, and a list of mobile apps for viewing the stars in the day or the night so we wouldn’t miss a single celestial event as the world came to an end (ha ha!) in December 2012.

When a young man with a shotgun entered the Clackamas Mall southwest of downtown Portland, Oregon, 40 miles from my home and work and started shooting, I was a part of a community shattered by the violence. I wanted to make a difference. I lived for too many years under war and terrorism conditions. I know what it is like. I know the feeling that shakes you to depths you didn’t know existed within you. I know intimately how much it tears at you, making you feel victimized and hopeless, even if you weren’t there or knew anyone directly involved. You are involved by proxy – and community.

Facing how to make this fit into my blog focus and purpose, I reached out to my readers to remind them that blogging is about community building and healing in “Peace on Earth: Help Me Fight Terrorism in My Community.” We are all a part of the world as well as our blogs, and sometimes we have to get real, and we have to get involved.

I kept to my promise and was there right after the mall opened. My plan was to be there only for a couple hours, walking the entire mall and visiting as many stores as possible, bringing a physical presence, hope, and laughter to the community. Unfortunately all of us with the same intention drove in hearing the news in our vehicles of the tragic shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, pushing aside the tragedy at the Clackamas Mall and putting it into a twisted perspective. I spent the whole day there, through the evening’s candlelight vigil, and covered it in “A Day of Healing and Suffering at the Clackamas Mall,” sharing my experience with my readers.

Sometimes the news impacts our readers. Sometimes it impacts us. It’s time for you to share some news on your site, good or bad, fun or sad.

Remember, this will be a monthly exercise, helping you to incorporate current events into your blog content. Stretch your imagination and find some current event in the news to blog about as part of these Blog Exercises. Flex your mental muscles and find the connection.

Remember to include a hat tip link back to this post to create a trackback, or leave a properly formed link in the comments so participants can check out your blog exercise task.

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